"IFFI has played a key role in showcasing various linguistic films. They don't get enough distribution and IFFI is a great platform. Film festivals are all about celebrating cinema," she said, adding that it was also a great avenue for meeting renowned names like Majid Majidi, Atiq Rahimi, among others.

"It is a huge challenge for us to run this festival and it is an exciting journey. I feel a strong focus on regional cinema is required and not overall mainstream cinema. There is some beautiful independent cinema as well," Kotru said during a session.

Festival director Shankar Mohan, who was also a part of the discussion, said that the festival has managed to do tremendous service and help sponsor growth in festivals all over India, most of them being government sponsored.

"IFFI was shifted to Goa in 2004. Before Goa, the festival was a traveling festival. The idea was to reach out to various industries across India. It was important to feel every culture," he said.

"IFFI is primarily a feature film festival. Short film and documentary sections were introduced in 2011. IFFI takes care of documentaries equally and have focused forums," he added.

Swapnil Naik of the Entertainment Society of Goa said that government of Goa had been very supportive throughout.

"Since the past 10 years, we have seen to it that we get all the co-operation from the state government,” he said.